Saturday, April 27, 2013

A Dragon Is Not A Slave

Well, it's been rather interesting with the latest few shows I've been looking at, so here's a roundup of them ...

Arrow: There are only three episodes left for the first season finale and this latest one was a nice gem of an episode. It was nice to see former Angel actor J. August Richards playing someone with genuine menace and there was a nice exploration into Oliver and Tommy's deteriorating friendship as well as the whole saga with Laurel and more flashbacks to the Island, I can't wait to see where else the show will go in the last three episodes.

Defiance: It looks good, it's got an excellent cast, an interesting premise and is created by Rocknes S. O'Bannon but the first two episodes whilst establishing most of the general plots and main players didn't feel quite as adventurous as I was hoping. I am liking the show but I do hope that as the season progresses, it'll surprise me a bit more because so far it feels all too familiar.

Game Of Thrones: There are moments when this show floors me and the last five minutes of And Now His Watch Is Ended certainly did that when Daenerys took her Unsullied, Missandei, reclaimed her dragon and showed the slave masters of Astapor that you just don't mess with her. It's only been four episodes (though three for her) and so far Daenerys has been better served her than she was in the previous season. The rest of the plots however have equally been as interesting - Pod's legendary prowess, Jaime/Brienne's team up, Margaery's growing hold on Joffrey to Cersei's annoyance, Varys's various scenes with Tyrion and Olenna and Arya and the Hound meeting up amongst the chaos with Theon's psychological torment, Bran's warg dreams and the chaos with the Night's Watch as well. We;re not even halfway through this season and it's shaping up to being the show's best one yet.

Glee: After the horribly misconceived shooting episode, it's a relief that the last two episodes have been something of a marked improvement for the show. I like that the show has made Ryder's Catfish plot a little more interesting and delved more into his and Kitty's pasts and the whole night at the ballet subplot with Santana, Rachel and Kurt has been interesting enough to watch as well as the middle one of them getting her Funny Girl part. This season has been pretty patchy in places but these two episodes definitely felt more like a step in the right direction and the last two look suitably decent as well.

Once Upon A Time: An interesting episode where we briefly met Robin Hood, saw Hook bound and gagged in the back of a truck as part of a crazy scheme by Tamara and Owen (both of whom are shaping up as decent antagonists) and more importantly got some more Rumbelle flashbacks whilst dealing with the fact that our sweet Belle is more of a naughty girl now named Lacey, who somewhat appreciates Gold's darker side while Regina managed to suss out what Emma was hiding from her this time. I'm struggling to see how this show has devolved for some because while we've had stronger episodes this season, this was still another goodie and Lacey is a lot of fun to watch too.

The Vampire Diaries: You know what the best thing about the backdoor pilot for The Originals is? It's that it's now picked up for a bloody series and the possibility of a mostly Klaus free fifth season has now become a reality. Which is a good thing because I am genuinely fed up of the character and while Silas will undoubtedly dominate the fifth year, at least the show will have moved on from the originals and that can only be a good thing. As for the last two episodes - still enjoying Elena as an emotionless bitch, finding Bonnie's out of control powers interesting, getting bored with Stefan and Damon trying to get their precious snowflake back and Katherine's snarkiness combined with Caroline's common sense at times is a nice way of balancing things out. However I'm not really sure if I care at this point who gets the cure as long as someone does and soon already.

- It might be dividing viewers and reviewers but DaVinci's Demons has been renewed for a second season of 10 episodes from Starz.
- Expect a proposal in the fourth season finale of Glee, which will also be set around Regionals as well.
- MTV have picked up a Scream series but a writer has yet to be announced for it.
- ABC are doing their own version of The Saint starring Adam Rayner as Simon Templar and Eliza Dusku as Patricia Holm.
- Max Beesley has signed up for a recurring role in the third season of Suits.
- Devious Maids and Mistresses will premiere on new station TLC for UK digital viewers.
- There's rumblings about a plot concerning experimenting on vampires in True Blood's upcoming sixth season.
- Brad Paisley will be guest appearing on an upcoming episode of Nashville.
- Mike Kelley has left Revenge while the show's second season finale will kill off a main character.
- Comedy Central have cancelled Futurama.

About Me

My name is Shawn Lunn and when I don't blog regularly on TV, I write a serious amount of reviews for a variety of different TV programmes as well as comics, books and DVDs pertaining to them (which can be found on my TV Tome and Shawnlunn2002 TVHITS Yahoo Group, also linked here) as well as on this blog. I'm a huge fan of all innovative and smart television.